Margaret Flys Home
25 November 2008 | The Solomon Islands
Randy
We had a nice sleep even though the anchorage is a bit choppy. Margaret was all packed so we took her to the dinghy dock and loaded everything up to keep it dry. Then I beached the dink and tied it up. I ran over to customs and quarantine to pay my bills. Things were supposed to open at 8AM but it is a busy port and the customs agent was out on a ship so it took me a good 45 minutes to get things paid. We jumped a cab then and headed for Immigration.
Immigration here was a little more hassle. I had to fill out the usual forms but they had a hard time with the crew departing bit. Especially the crew arriving now and leaving now bit. After running across to the cashier building to pay the fees we finally got it worked out that we would get the visa stamps at the airport due to the absence of the right officer at the main immigration office. So we headed off to the airport.
At the airport we got the arrival immigration guy to stamp us without much problem, though I did have to be emphatic about the necessity as he tried to send us back to the main office. On the way out of arrivals (which was otherwise shut down) we were stopped by a RAMSI guy. I was glad to see that they are trying to check up on things abnormal and make a difference here. He was a great Aussie and waved us on our way after our explanation of the circumstances.
We wanted to share lunch with Margaret before she left but the food around town hasn't been too exciting. We tried to go to the Lonely Planet recommended spot, The Rain Forest Cafe (not like the one you're thinking about), but it was closed. We ended up with fish and chips at the airport (yuck).
And then Margaret was gone. Bye Margaret, we'll miss you!!
We ran errands the rest of the day and tried to make sure that we could get out of here as soon as possible. We did meet up with John Inniss, the local WWII expert. We hope to take a WWII history tour with him before we depart. The only thing tying us up is our PNG visas which we need to get here before we leave for Gizo.